CambridgeToday received the following letter to the editor from the Unsheltered Campaign in response to our article Closure of Cambridge encampment was used as a 'de-campment blueprint' by police.
‘Success’ is not the word that comes to mind when people are banished, left with nowhere to go, and overwhelmed by stress and insecurity. Yet, as reported in Wednesday’s Cambridge Today article, at the Police Service board meeting, staff sergeant Jay MacSween used the word ‘success,’ ‘effective,’ and ‘a blueprint to decampment’ to describe the closure of the homeless encampment at 150 Main St. in Cambridge, in August 2023.
As a group of concerned residents and housing advocates, including individuals providing support to encampment residents with direct knowledge of the closure of 150 Main, we are dismayed at the characterization of the displacement of people experiencing homelessness at 150 Main as anything but a failure.
After the closure, most of the residents remained homeless and living outside, and while some people were offered temporary shelter, most spaces were full.
Many residents moved a few blocks away to Soper Park, where they were moved along again just a few weeks later. In the aftermath of these encampment closures, the Region’s commissioner of community services, Peter Sweeney, acknowledged that many people who were at 150 Main continue to live outside.
A common myth is that people choose to be homeless and/or sleep rough. The reality is that people face many barriers to accessing emergency shelters.
Most shelters will not accept couples or pets and have strict limits on the belongings people can bring.
Shelters cannot accommodate individuals with behavioural issues or complex medical needs. And importantly, even when a shelter space is available, a person staying in an emergency shelter still does not have a permanent and adequate place to call home.
We cannot police our way to “success” with homelessness.
Police presence at encampment evictions do not help the residents scrambling to pack up all their worldly belongings into garbage bags, offer alternate locations for them to exist without fear of being moved again, and a shoulder to lean on when it all feels too overwhelming.
It is outreach workers, community advocates, mutual aid supporters, and others in the encampment community members who provide the help. The police know this too, as staff sergeant MacSween noted that the police’s role of continually moving people along does nothing to solve homelessness.
In fact, police presence can make things worse, as years of distrust and negative interactions cause some people who are homeless to become stressed and defensive. This is especially stressful for some Black and Indigenous unhoused people who continue to experience discrimination and trauma from people in positions of state authority.
The criminalization of homelessness refers to ticketing or arresting people for activities that are directly related to their homelessness, like loitering or trespassing when they have nowhere else to go, sleeping on a park bench, or urinating in public spaces when they are denied access to bathrooms.
This creates a vicious cycle, where people lose their job, housing, or support network because of their criminal record, which further entrenches their homelessness and leaves them more susceptible to criminalization again, and again, and again.
We don’t need a police-driven ‘blueprint’ for responding to encampments. We already know how to do this from a human rights perspective. The National Protocol for Homeless Encampments in Canada outlines the principles for meaningful engagement with encampments from a human rights perspective and how to move towards outcomes that meet the needs of the residents and the broader community.
After the City of Toronto used violence and intimidation to close three encampments in 2021, with little to no positive outcomes for unhoused people in the city and no reduction in homelessness, they tried a different, human rights oriented approach with an encampment in Dufferin Grove Park.
It took time, patience, and trust building, but many people were able to access permanent housing, health supports, and the emphasis on community relations saw unhoused and housed neighbours share the park for everyone’s benefit. That sounds more like success.
Regional council recently passed the Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. This plan outlines the systems transformation necessary to respond to the homelessness crisis we are experiencing in this Region, much like communities across Canada.
The Plan includes a specific action to implement a human rights based approach to encampments. For the Region to fulfill its obligations set out in the Plan, they must create a new, transformative blueprint for responding to encampments - one that is built on community, not punishment.
Lesley Crompton, Kitchener
Erin Dej, Cambridge
Laura Pin, Hamilton
Meagan Snyder, Kitchener
- On behalf of Unsheltered Campaign, Waterloo Region
The Unsheltered Campaign is a group of housed and unhoused community members who advocate for year-round support, housing, and alternatives to shelters for all unhoused people in Waterloo Region.
